After starting in bright sunshine in Thoiry in the Yvelines department of France, stage two of Paris-Nice was a relatively subdued affair as the peloton meandered south in the direction of Montargis.
In the end, a highly charged sprint finish was inevitable. But it wasn’t Olav Kooj that got another moment in the spotlight, it was Tudor Pro Cycling’s Arvid De Kleijn. The Dutchman was a surprise stage winner ahead of Laurence Pithie (Groupama FDJ) who took over the overall race lead.
Reflecting on what had been a relatively straightforward day for his team, Bahrain Victorious, Great Britain’s Fred Wright told Cycling Weekly in Montargis that the weather conditions on the rolling terrain were behind the reduced pace.
Wright said: "It was just a headwind. The main factor was the headwind. There's not that many guys motivated for the break on a day like this.
"Most teams, even the smaller teams have sprinters that they want to ride for, I mean, Tudor they're not WorldTour but they won the stage today. So that kind of shows.
"You had the guys fighting for the mountain points, but no one really wants to be hacking into a headwind for four hours just to be caught I guess."
For a large part of the day, the peloton had the appearance of a casual Sunday club ride as opposed to a WorldTour bike race. However, Wright explained that the calmer tempo made for a frenetic finale as the sprinters tore into the centre of Montargis.
"It wasn't really the stage that I think the organisers had planned with no crosswinds," he said. "We were on a lot of roads where I thought this would have been very different if the wind was coming from a different direction.
"But in the end, in a lot of ways, it makes it slightly more stressful because everyone's fresh coming into the final kilometre. It was pretty carnage at the end but chapeau to Tudor because they really nailed it with that lead out in the end.
"We got caught on the wrong side, which is a bit annoying, but the GC boys were safe, so at least we ticked that box."
The British national champion said that he was largely relieved to see the back of the race’s first two stages, ahead of the inevitably brutal days further south to come in the mountains around Nice.
But before the peloton reaches Nice, the riders will tackle two hillier days around Sisteron in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence region.
Wright explained that he had circled stages five and six in the roadbook as two days opportunities to potentially get up the road and ignite some action in the breakaway.
"I'm quite happy that these first two days are done now as these can be the real stressful ones at Paris-Nice," Wright explained. "Hopefully we'll have a nice hit out in the team time trial tomorrow.
"Then hopefully there could be some opportunities for me on stage five and six but we'll see."
"Whether it's breakaway or a little reduced sprint, I'm not sure, but six I've had a look at as well as five," he added. "I think five might be controlled again for another sprint, but it's like a much harder sprint and then stage six looks look like a day for a breakaway.
"Then it's just a case of surviving the mountains for me and then thinking about the rest of the Classics season now."
Paris-Nice continues on Tuesday in Auxerre with a team time trial on stage three.
